Boundstone
Carbonate rock whose primary components were bound together in place during deposition, often by organisms.
Language and route: English bound + stone; formal carbonate class proposed in Dunham (1962). English bound + stone; formal carbonate class proposed in Dunham (1962)
Literal gloss: stone bound as deposited
The name and its history
Robert J. Dunham · 1962 original abstract checked
- What does the word literally mean?
- Immediate source or formation: English bound + stone; formal carbonate class proposed in Dunham (1962). Literal gloss ‘stone bound as deposited’. This linguistic evidence is distinct from claims about the namer’s intentions.
- What did the original author mean?
- Carbonate buildups varied in biological architecture; the naming focus shifted from simply reef-like morphology to evidence of contemporaneous binding.
- Why was the name needed?
- The challenge was to describe organisms holding sediment together without assuming every massive carbonate was a coral reef.
- What evidence supported the original concept?
- Dunham’s paper lists intergrown skeletons and sediment-floored, roofed cavities among observed binding evidence.
- How has geology changed the concept?
- Later reef and microbial studies distinguish baffling, binding and framework-building; Embry–Klovan subclasses were added in 1971.
Further historical context
Carbonate buildups varied in biological architecture; the naming focus shifted from simply reef-like morphology to evidence of contemporaneous binding.
The challenge was to describe organisms holding sediment together without assuming every massive carbonate was a coral reef.
Dunham’s paper lists intergrown skeletons and sediment-floored, roofed cavities among observed binding evidence.
Later reef and microbial studies distinguish baffling, binding and framework-building; Embry–Klovan subclasses were added in 1971.
Editorial qualification
Priority and exact original naming language not independently authenticated; distinguish documented later use from first coinage.
Related names
Grainstone (carbonate) · Packstone (carbonate) · Stromatolite · Limestone
Sources
- Dunham 1962, Classification of Carbonate Rocks According to Depositional Texture, AAPG Memoir 1:108–121 — identified original; author abstract directly inspected
- SEPM Strata, carbonate classification comparing Folk, Dunham and extensions — professional retrospective of distinct schemes and Embry–Klovan 1971 extension
- Folk 1959, Practical Petrographic Classification of Limestones, AAPG Bulletin 43:1–38 — identified original publication; abstract directly inspected, not every page